The many design innovations of naval architect William Francis Gibbs has coalesced in his ocean liner S.S. United States, which not only holds trans-Atlantic speed records, but embodies many engineering and safety features.

When we see the grand days of ocean liners in vintage films or documentaries, they present images of elegance and sophistication through their furnishings, decor, formal dinners and dress. However, they may not always suggest technical innovation.

This is not surprising, as the extreme hazards of ocean travel even today dictate the use of cautious, proven design rather than change and risk. Modern cruise ships—which are designed as apartment buildings tipped on their sides and sporting copious entertainment opportunities and guests wearing shorts and flip-flops—fulfill a different function rather than the point-to-point transportation role of the Ile de France, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth or even the ill-fated Titanic.

However, during the ocean liners’ glory days one ship stands out; the S.S. United States. Although it might not be considered the most opulent of the grand liners, it had at least attributes that others could not match—speed coupled with graceful lines. On her maiden voyage between Cornwall, UK and New York, she broke the long-established speed record, taking about 3 ½ days each way. The ship still holds the records in its class.

Self-Taught Naval Architect

William F. Gibbs on the cover of Time magazine, Sept. 28, 1942. Its entire design from hull geometry, to mechanical issues such as power plant and ventilation, soft features such as furnishings and critical safety aspects were conceived of and driven by William Francis Gibbs. Born in 1886, Gibbs was an experienced naval architect, but was entirely self-taught with no formal training. He earned a law degree in 1913, but left law after winning his first and only case.

Enamored of ship design, he studied on his own for more than a year, then won a bid for a trans-Atlantic ship in partnership with his brother. The project was completed on time and under budget. During World War 1, he did a major design work for the Navy, which enhanced both his skills and his reputation.

He also studied the main causes of ship’s sinking and loss of life (primarily collisions and fires) and became obsessed with reducing the occurrence and effect of those calamities. While he could not directly reduce collisions, he could minimize their effects with better design and better use of watertight compartments. (The watertight doors on the Titanic, for example, allowed water to flow over each compartment's bulkhead into the next compartment, cancelling the "watertight" aspect.)

He included extra safety factors into one of his next major designs (the Malolo), which was rammed on its maiden voyage; she survived the accident and made it back to port despite a gash in the hull. The ship’s safe return after sustaining such major damage further solidified his reputation.

Crowds flocked to see the calamitous results of a 1934 fire aboard the Morro Castle. William Gibbs saw the wreck and worked to mitigate fire risk. Image source: WeirdNJ.comEven so, he believed that fire was the real danger to minimize on a ship, which occurred frequently due to open flames, combustible materials, wood decking, cigarettes and cigars, steam boilers, and more. He saw the calamitous results of a fire in 1934 aboard the Morro Castle just off the New Jersey coast. The disaster claimed more than 100 lives as people on the shore watched helplessly as the ship burned. He felt that compared to a collision or even sinking, a fire at sea was most terrifying and lethal because it could spread so fast and induce panic. Thus, he focused on building a fireproof ocean liner.

World War II interrupted his quest, as he worked on destroyer design and became lead designer for the mass-produced Liberty ships. He was a driver in adopting the production techniques of the auto industry to the traditional method of shipbuilding such as having major sub-assemblies pre-fabricated off-site, rather than building everything up from individual parts at the less-efficient shipyard environment.

Raw Power, Shape and Materials

He dream to create the fastest, sleekest and safest ocean liner and it became a reality in 1952 with the launch of the S.S. United States, capable of carrying 2000 passengers and 900 crew members.

The raw specifications are a good place to begin: The 12-deck liner's overall length was 990 feet (302 m) with a waterline length of 940 feet (287 m; maximum beam was 101 feet (31 m); draft was 32 feet (9.5 m); and displacement at maximum draft was more than 47,000 tons.

Low pressure turbine #1 and main reduction gear, forward engine room.The ship’s power profile is nothing short of astonishing. The eight boilers and four 1000-psi steam turbines produced more than 240,000 SHP (shaft horsepower, approximately 180,000 kW) to drive four independent propellers, each 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter (two were four-bladed and two were five-bladed, which greatly reduced cavitation and ship-wide vibration). The ship could carry enough fuel and supplies to travel non-stop up to 12,000 miles (19,000 km) at a cruising speed of 40 mph (65 km/hr).

Much of the superstructure used aluminum to reduce weight. However, this brought potential problems of galvanic corrosion, especially in the salt-air environment. To forestall this, Gibbs devised unique metal-metal isolation techniques using specialized barrier tapes, and had them adopted by shipyard, which was initially skeptical.

Due to the use of aluminum, the liner's displacement was only about 60% of the similarly sized Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth liners, and it also had the highest power/weight ratio of any comparable vessel. The use of aluminum also lowered the ship's center of gravity, which resulted in better stability. However, the use of aluminum had caused problems as shipbuilders did not have experience in riveting the metal (welding was not possible), so new techniques had to be devised for making, annealing and inserting the aluminum rivets.

Construction took under three years, and $50 million of its $72 million cost (in 1950 dollars) was paid for by the U.S. Government, which intended to use the liner as a high-speed troop ship with a capacity of up to 15,000 soldiers. Navy requirements also mandated that the power plant be constructed as two fully independent engine rooms, for redundancy.

Sheer power and innovative use of materials are only part of what distinguished the S.S. United States. His obsession with fire risk led him to enforce a strict design rule; absolutely no flammable material could be used in the construction or decor. The only wood was in the kitchen's butcher blocks and the dining-room piano (and it was made of a fire-resistant mahogany); all fabrics were fiberglass; even the cloth hangers in the guest rooms were aluminum.

Turning to the liner’s speed, the power/weight ratio and SHP were not the only design aspects that allowed the liner to break speed records so effortlessly. The underside of the hull, especially the bow, used an unusual bulbous shape instead of the traditional knife-edge to improve high-speed performance and reduce water resistance and friction. This was not the first ship to use such a design, but at the time it was by far the largest. For many years, this and other below-water details were classified information, and no public drawings or photos below the waterline were available; the many display models of this sleek and modernistic liner showed a flat bottom and no details.

Travel Innovation Sinks the Liner

The S.S. United States was a technical and commercial success, but only for a short period. What the sea could not do, the jet aircraft did; making ocean liners no longer attractive in terms of travel time and cost. The need for ocean liners plying the route between North America and Europe began to evaporate with the introduction of commercial jet service (primarily the Boeing 707) in the 1960s. Faced with unfavorable economics, the United States was retired in 1969 while at the shipyard for major but routine maintenance.

Since then, ownership has passed though many entities, from cruise-ship lines hoping to somehow use it to unrelated commercial operations. Along the way, all the fittings and fixtures have been removed (many were sold as memorabilia to collectors and restaurants), along with the asbestos used throughout for fire safety; the propellers are gone and now serve as high-end lawn ornaments at various institutions.

Over the years, there have been many proposals to somehow revive, preserve or re-purpose the liner, including making it into a floating hotel similar to the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif. None of these have worked out, and this marvel of engineering innovation sits decaying in a Philadelphia shipyard. It costs the non-profit conservancy that currently owns it about $1 million a year. A scrap yard likely will be its next home—tangible testimony to how a disruptive technology like jet travel can from come nowhere and make an engineering marvel obsolete within a few years.

References:

1. Steven Ujifusa, "A Man and His Ship: America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the S.S. United States," Simon and Shuster, 2012
2. Steven Ujifusa on William Francis Gibbs and His Ships (podcast and transcript)
3. SS United States Conservancy
4. http://www.ss-united-states.net/